Sharks beat Wild in overtime

SAN JOSE -- Twenty-four hours after their futures with the Sharks were guaranteed for three more seasons, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau showed why.

Two goals by Thornton -- including the overtime winner -- and one by Marleau provided all the offense Saturday night as the Sharks eked out a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild that extended San Jose's winning streak to six games.

"It's a nice coincidence, that's for sure," Marleau said. "Guys feel good about it, and hopefully that's what led to tonight's win."

The game featured role reversals for Thornton and Joe Pavelski, who was held without a goal for the first time in five games but assisted on both by the Sharks captain. In overtime, Pavelski had taken the puck away from Minnesota forward Jason Pominville along the boards to start the final sequence.

"What a steal," Thornton said, "and just the poise to hold onto it and wait for me to get into the zone. He just out-competed and laid it in on me and game over."

Thornton's two goals more than atoned for a first-period mistake that had staked the Wild to an early lead.

"It probably wasn't Jumbo's best game," coach Todd McLellan said. "He'd probably be the first one to tell you that, turnovers and fumbling the puck a little bit but still comes up with two goals, so that's a good thing."

Minnesota got on the board first when forward Matt Cooke got his stick on Thornton's pass to Brad Stuart in the neutral zone, then beat Antti Niemi at 9:33 of the first period.

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San Jose was on its heels after that, and the Wild took a 2-0 lead at 4:16 of the second period after Niemi mishandled the puck, and it eventually went to defenseman Keith Ballard pinching in deep in the right faceoff circle for a wrist shot that found the back of the San Jose net.

Shortly after that, the Sharks did get back on track, though it took a hit by Minnesota's Zach Parise on defenseman Jason Demers to turn things around.

"We were sleeping," McLellan said, "and maybe that woke us up a little bit."

It also prompted the coach to juggle his top two lines as he moved Matt Nieto alongside Thornton and Pavelski and had Brent Burns skating with Marleau and Tommy Wingels.

Not long after that hit, the Sharks scored two goals in 49 seconds. The first came at 11:12 of the second period when Pavelski passed the puck from behind the net to Thornton, and his one-timer floated over Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper's shoulder.

On the next shift, Wingels carried the puck into the Wild zone and was about to get off a shot when his stick was tied up by Wild center Kyle Brodziak. His initial shot delayed, Wingels sent the puck toward the slot, where Marleau redirected it into the net.

"The guy got a stick in there and disrupted it, fortunately for me," said Marleau, adding that the disruption may have thrown Kuemper off. "He was probably down, ready for the shot, and then it came across the body on him."

That was all the scoring until Thornton's overtime winner, and the NHL's assists leader seemed to enjoy the fact it was Pavelski -- who now has 19 goals in his past 22 games, but didn't get a shot Saturday night until 11:38 of the final period -- that was setting him up.